Are Apple and Google Protecting Us or the Criminals?

Late last year, Tom Webster and I did a podcast with our six marketing predictions for 2014. Two trends I mentioned were 1) the “malignant complexity” of the web that would lead to an increase in security breaches and 2) the opportunities this would create to actually market data security as a product feature.

In an online world under attack from hackers, terrorists, and just plain old bad guys wanting to wreak havoc, the idea of hack-proof Internet data safety will have to be a product feature trumpeted by new devices, software and service providers.

My prediction is coming true … but with some unexpected consequences.

The bad guys benefit

Keeping people away from your data is not just a feature, it has also become a marketing pitch, as I forecast.

Last week, Apple announced that its new operating system for iPhones would have a new encryption system. In…